


maybe i can't stop the downpour, but i will always join you for a walk in the rain

by beatswords



Category: Power Rangers
Genre: Kindred Spirits, Male-Female Friendship, Other, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 19:30:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10472445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beatswords/pseuds/beatswords
Summary: As soon as the "I see you!" "I see you too, homeboy" happened between these two in the movie, I knew I was here for this dynamic. They didn't disappoint and, thus, this was born. Enjoy.Title is a quote, but the author is unknown sadly. Tense confusion disclaimer per usual.





	

**Author's Note:**

> As soon as the "I see you!" "I see you too, homeboy" happened between these two in the movie, I knew I was here for this dynamic. They didn't disappoint and, thus, this was born. Enjoy.
> 
> Title is a quote, but the author is unknown sadly. Tense confusion disclaimer per usual.

I.

Every Saturday, after detention, Zack and Trini, meet at the highest peak on the mountain and talk. It happened without planning. One day she climbed up and he was sitting there, as if he was waiting for her.

Being a power ranger had helped the two of them feel less alone in the whirlwind of high school. Finally, they had friends. _No, family_ , she corrected herself instantly. She started to find herself dreading the inevitable move to a new school, a new town, a new life. Would she be lucky enough to experience this feeling twice in a lifetime?

Still, the beauty of a family is a melted pot of people that understand you. Zack pried from the beginning, tried to peel back her layers. It would’ve normally irritated her, but she let him, because she could tell he got it.

Before their entire lives changed and they rode into battles on dinosaur robots, Trini had first laid eyes on Zack perched up on that same mountain. He seemed to be there any time she was, or coming through after messing around on the nearby trains, but they never spoke to each other. Instead, they coexisted on their separate rocks and simultaneously tried to make sense of their shitty situations.

Now, they talked, or hung out, anything to get an escape from the hysteria.

“Stop cheating!” Trini yelled, bouncing a bit on her seat on the cliff, as she laughed.

They were playing Hot Hands. It may have appeared random, but after the battle, she had found herself feeling nostalgic. She had even started playing with her brothers again. Maybe it was a cry for simpler times, when they were allowed to be kids and weren’t carrying the weight of Angel Grove on their shoulders. Either way, it was nice that Zack was up for humoring her.

He laughed, head back and all. “How can you cheat at Hot Hands?! You can see everything I’m doing!”

“Don’t ask me, I’m not the one cheating,” she replied coolly, throwing her hands up in defense. She placed them back in her pockets, forever embodying a “chill” persona that wasn’t entirely accurate.

Zack snorted. “Oh whatever! Where’s the fun in playing by the rules?”

“Exactly what I’d expect from a dude that jumped onto a moving car in the middle of the night.”

He raised his arms out, outstretched in the air, in a no-regrets sort of way. “I lived, didn’t I?”

She shook her head, but secretly admired it. While they had a lot of similarities, Zack had a carefree quality about him that made her jealous. He was reckless, while still managing to be wise. He was unpredictable yet caring. Mysterious and vulnerable. A walking contradiction, but it made him that much more complex.

Regardless of what her parents may think, Trini always felt like she was so transparent. It didn’t matter if she didn’t open up, people always seemed to figure her out. Sometimes it worked against her, like Rita somehow knowing to single her out. Sometimes it worked for her, like with Zack.

Though she couldn’t figure out if she was grateful for the latter just yet.

II.

“Supposedly there’s some big party tonight for homecoming,” Zack mentions, twirling an uneven rock between his fingers. They were sitting next to each other, staring ahead. No eye contact helped the conversations, at least for her.

Trini rolls her eyes, before stuffing her hands into her jacket pockets. “I’m good. I hate parties.” She paused, his words finally sinking in, and made a slight face. “Wait, how do you know? You go to school five days in a row and now you’re a big deal?”

“Don’t be jealous,” he teased, throwing the rock forward and watching it dive off the cliff and disappear. After a couple moments, they hear the faint sound of it hitting a surface. “Billy told me. He went to his first one last weekend and said it was _life changing_.”

“More life changing than saving the world?”

“That’s what I said!”

The two of them share a laugh. It’s short and sweet, but needed. Trini hadn’t realized how long she had gone without laughing or smiling, until both reappeared in her life. It still took some getting used to, but she never wanted to forget the feeling of either again.

“So, why do you ‘hate parties’?” Zack asked, snapping her from her thoughts. His questions are always so casual, but she doesn’t ignore the feeling of desperation underneath. The desire to want to connect with someone, anyone. His words at the bonfire, about the team being good for him, still rung in her head. She wonders if they’re his first friends ever, but hesitates to ask. “Is it the catchy radio hits or the drunk teenagers?”

“Both,” she counters. She can feel herself tensing up, but the memories were still too fresh. She digs her sneaker into the dirt to distract her. Feelings are dumb.

His eyes are on her, she can feel it. Just like the bonfire, when he somehow knew to rephrase his question, he Sensing this, just like he did at the bonfire, Zack does it again. “Afraid of running into someone? Some hot cheerleader that turned you down?”

She gives him a small, pointed look. “I’m not afraid of anything, Taylor.” She knows it’s a lie, she’s scared of a lot of things: the police, life post-high school, opening up. Her tough girl persona is so obviously a shield, but she never gave anyone a chance to figure that out.

A silence falls before either of them talk again. Once again, it’s Zack. “I used to go to a lot of the parties here, you know, before my mom…” he trails off, but she finishes the thought in her head. _Before my mom took a turn for the worse._ He pauses for a second, before continuing. “It’s nice to not think sometimes. It’s just you, alcohol, some shitty pop song playing from the speakers, and tons of bodies around you. You can be alone, but not…alone, you know?” He lets out an embarrassed laugh, as if he’s unsure if that even made sense, but it does.

“Yeah, I feel you,” she responds, her voice cracking slightly. Naturally, her mouth becomes completely dry the second she wants to talk. She clears her throat. “At my last school, I got really into the party scene. It’s fun for a second, but after that second passes, you just feel worse. Fuck that.”

The next sentence had lingered on her tongue for the entirety of today’s conversation, but she forces herself to continue, preceding with a sigh. “I met someone one night. We both hated the music and ended up outside to catch our breaths. After that, we hung out every day. Not even doing anything or talking, we just hung out in her parent’s basement listening to music. It was nice, but…she didn’t want anything serious or her dad would flip…” Now it was her turn to trail off.

Her name was Nicole and they had fooled around plenty of times in that basement before Nicole came to that realization. It was Trini’s first relationship, though it could hardly be considered an actual relationship, with a girl, though she knew she liked girls way before that.  It was a whirlwind of complications and messiness and Trini and her family were gone in a flash, on their way to Angel Grove.

After a couple texts here and there, Nicole soon became a figment of Trini’s relationship and the epiphany she needed to realize that there was no point in getting invested in anyone or anything. That was, until the power rangers. Now she was, knowingly, setting herself up for a different type of heartbreak.

A hand landed on her shoulder, followed by a comforting shoulder rub, and Trini realized she had completely zoned out once again. She looked over at Zack, sending him an appreciative smile, before looking forward at the peach-colored skies. The sun was starting to set.

“My last relationship ended with me getting slapped in the face and told I’m a psychopath,” he offered, letting go of her shoulder. She snorts. “With my mom, and now the team, there’s no time for any of that anymore. Not that I’d want to anyway.” She could tell he was lying, but she smirked anyway. She felt the same.

“Dating is overrated, dude.”

“Someone should tell that to Jason and Kimberly.” He let out a laugh afterwards, but Trini tenses up again.

Kimberly Hart. For so long, she was just a popular girl who didn’t notice anyone that didn’t kiss her ass. It was easier that way. Now, she was a ranger, a friend. Things had changed. Kimberly, with her warm brown eyes and sarcastic smile, the smell of strawberries forever lingering from her shampoo.

 _Fuck_.

“You know what, I’ll go to the party if you do,” Trini offers, changing the subject. Zack looks surprised, but doesn’t question it, which she’s grateful for.

“Sure, why not, it’s been awhile since I’ve gotten crazy.” He stands up from the rock he was sitting on.

Trini rolls her eyes, before standing up as well. They walk side by side down the mountain in silence. Conversation was for the mountain and the mountain only.

The party is at some footballer’s house. They perch against a wall and people watch for a while, before joining the dance floor. It’s a rare moment of letting go that Trini relishes in, forever unsure when the next one will be.

III.

While most teenagers dread having homework during the weekend, Trini doesn’t mind it. In fact, she almost looks forward to it. For her, homework was a perfect excuse to avoid talking to her parents.

_I have to study._

_I have an exam on Monday._

_Can’t talk, swamped._

Homework had become the only consistent thing in her life. The one area she could count on, no matter what school she was at. It was the one thing she had control over, especially when it came to the dreaded future post-high school.

Trini lugged her textbooks up to the trail, headphones and all. Despite their unspoken ritual, she still felt wary to rely on Zack’s presence. One Saturday, he might have to rush home to tend to his mom or whatever it is that kept him so mysteriously busy. She didn’t want to overthink it, so she kept herself preoccupied with other activities, just in case.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel relieved when she heard footsteps behind her.

“Is that Algebra? Up here? Wow, you really are crazy.”

“Shut up, I have to study.” She said, after letting out a few laughs. “Being a superhero is really cutting into my schoolwork.”

The sound of Zack plopping down next to her makes her look up. He skims over her shoulder, his face getting more and more confused by the line. “What are you being tested on? Rocket science? I’m good.” He moves away, laying down on the dirt and looking up.

A silence falls and Trini almost thinks he fell asleep, but his voice cuts through the air. “So, are you planning to go to college?”

Trini glances over, before shrugging and tapping her pencil against her notebook. “I dunno, man. Maybe.” She stops tapping. “You?”

“You obviously haven’t seen my grades,” he teased, still looking up at the sky. “But nah, probably not. Especially with all that’s going on lately.”

Her voice grew quiet. “Yeah…”

“Do you ever think about what we signed up for though? I mean, I guess we didn’t sign up for it, but we willingly fought in a battle and almost died. When we were slipping into the lava, I just kept thinking about my mom and how no one would know where to look for her if I was gone. Then I thought about how she’d probably be dead anyway, since the entire town would be destroyed if we died.” Despite his heavy words, his voice never wavered. It was a deadpanned reality, which scared Trini.

She set her pencil down and pushed her textbook away, crossing her arms across her chest. “When Rita came into my home and attacked me, I thought that was it. She was so much stronger than me…I-I couldn’t win. And then Billy…” She felt a lump in her throat.

The inevitability of their demise was clearly weighing on the both of them, but she wondered what the rest of the team thought. Billy seemed to be handling everything well, or as well as someone who died and was brought back to life could. But Jason and Kimberly were harder to read.

Zack reached over, giving her hand a small squeeze. “I don’t regret meeting you guys at all. I’m a lot better off now.”

“Me too,” she admitted, softly.

If Rita was right and there were greater forces out there looking for the Zeo crystals, she found solace in the fact that they had each other. If they could defeat one of them, their chances at defeating them all were that much higher. Believing that was the reason she could sleep at night.

IV.

Zack’s stomach growled loudly, two seconds after joining her on the rock. She let out a surprised laugh. “Hungry?”

He looks over, slightly confused, as if he hadn’t heard it. Finally, it dawns on him. “Oh right. I’ve had to skip a couple meals, on account of money being tight, so I’ve just been making sure my mom eats.” His words reek of nonchalance, which fascinates her.

“When’s the last time you’ve eaten?” Her voice is soft, almost scared because she knows he’ll tell the truth as always.

“Outside of cafeteria food? I don’t remember, honestly.”

Despite what she may say or think about her parents, Trini couldn’t imagine not knowing when her last meal was, or even having to take on the responsibility of taking care of either her mom or dad. It was a task no teenager should have to deal with, but Zack had never complained in the short time that she had known him. It was admirable.

She bit her lip for a second, before speaking up. “You could come by my house for dinner? We’re not having anything special, but my mom always cooks extra for leftovers.” She looks ahead after a while, unsure if she’s breaking their unspoken rule of hanging out in the mountains, but the thought of him having to wait to eat until Monday was too much.

“You sure they won’t mind? I’ve been known to chew with my mouth open,” he teases, but his eyes glimmer a _thank you_.

She stands up and brushes any debris from her butt. “Trust me, if it’s weird, they’ll just talk around it. It’s what they do.”

They walk back to her house and, after witnessing the excited look on her mother’s face and awkwardly long hug she gave Zack, she realizes that she had forgotten that parents aren’t real people and will assume what they want about any situation.

Zack was the first friend she had ever brought home since _ever_ , so she can see why they’d turn it into a momentous occasion, but she was too preoccupied with making sure he had a meal to eat to turn the conversation to her sexuality. As long as she and Zack knew what their relationship was, that was all that mattered for now.

Throughout dinner, she stared at him. He carried most of the conversation, hitting it off with her little brothers instantly. They giggled throughout and made promises for future video game sessions. If she didn’t know what she did, she’d think he was just a normal teenager, who wasn’t dealing with anything more than he should.

The thought made her jealous. She felt like she always wore her emotions on her face, or hid behind anger. It must be nice to be able to pretend just once, that you weren’t always hurting.

After dinner, Zack collected leftovers for his mom, and her parents left her alone to say goodbye to Zack. She glared at them, but Zack just laughed on their way to the door.

“Sorry about…all of that,” she apologized, opening the door. “They’re a mess.”

Zack finally calmed down and turned to her, once he walked out the door, smiling slowly. “Thanks.”

Trini smiled back, but then quickly shrugged it off. “Anytime.” They high five, it’s easier, and he’s out the door.

V.

Zack misses an entire week of school, without notice. He doesn’t answer anyone’s phone calls or text messages. No one overthinks it, but Trini. She feels a sinking in her stomach almost immediately. It isn’t until midway through the week that the news of Zack’s mom’s passing travels through the hallways.

Jason suggests they go see him after school. Kimberly and Billy start thinking of what to buy him to show their condolences. Trini stands there, helpless.

She should be better at this. All those talks with Zack. He had become her best friend. This shouldn’t have been a shock; his mom had been sick since they had all come together. _They knew._ So why did she feel so distant from him now?

Billy’s mom cooks Zack a meal and they bring it to him. He looks tired, but thanks them. There wasn’t a funeral, since most of their family is out of the country. She’s being cremated. The words are so final. He says all of this emotionless, but forces out smiles and laughs here and there that reassure them that he’s okay.

Everyone hugs him and says things to comfort him, except Trini. She just stares and wishes that the floor would swallow her up. As they leave, she gives him an awkward smile and hurries out the door.

That Saturday, she brings her headphones to the mountains, expecting a solo evening. It takes her awhile to get used to it, which is surprising since this had been her life up until a month ago. The music fills her ears and she closes her eyes, freaking out when she feels someone join her.

Zack, with his hands in his pocket, eyes looking down at the ground. She removes her headphones and just stares at him. He looks even more tired than the last time she saw him and she wonders if he’s slept at all. She tries to think of what to say, anything at all, but before she can, he breaks down.

That front he held up when the team visited him is long gone now. His cries are deep and pained. Trini feels her eyes start to tear up as well. _Say something_ , she yells at herself in her head. She would want someone to say something if it were her.

Instead, she scoots closer to him and wraps her arms around him, pulling him close. After a couple seconds, he leans his head against her shoulder. They stay like that for what feels like hours, while he cries and screams.

When he finishes, they sit together and watch the sun set in silence. In that moment, a new rule was birthed on the mountain. There was beauty in conversation, but there was a great significance in silence, as well.

Once upon a time, Zack told the team they would be good for him. It feels like a lifetime ago since he uttered those words and Trini didn’t know it at the time, but he would end up being good for her too.


End file.
